Tanner Tessmann once again excelled for Venezia as the team pushes for a strong finish in Serie B with a big win, while Sergiño Dest was predictably nowhere to be found for AC Milan as his lost season nears its merciful end.
Ternana 1 – 4 Venezia FC
Tanner Tessmann was once again a standout in the midfield for Venezia on Sunday afternoon, notching up an assist and generally bossing the central midfield against Ternana in their lopsided win.
The in-form American played from whistle to whistle in the heart of Paolo Vanoli’s five-man midfield, completing 79% of his 39 passing attempts, taking a pair of shots, creating two chances, one of which led to Venezia’s third goal, was on-target for seven of 11 long balls and his only attempted cross, and drew three fouls.
On the defensive side, he won half of his eight duels, made six recoveries and one clearance, and played cleanly, with no fouls committed.
Gianluca Busio played the final half-hour of the game alongside Tessmann, completing ten of 11 passes as the team locked down for the win. Andrija Novakovich was an unused substitute.
Tessmann already came close following a corner in the opening minutes, only to see his shot from just outside the left edge of the six-yard box blocked for another corner.
Andrea Carboni opened the scoring for Venezia midway through the first half in style, breaking free at the far post to powerfully head in a corner from Magnus Kofod Andersen.
Finnish veteran Joel Pohjanpalo made it two for the visitors shortly past the half-hour, taking advantage of a clumsy collision between the Ternana keeper and one of his defenders, collecting the loose ball and easily slotting it into the open goal.
One minute before the half, Tessmann aggressively charged onto a loose ball just outside the area and one-timed a kick goalward. Whether he was attempting a shot or simply sending the ball into the crowd could be debated, but ultimately Mikael Egill Ellertsson was in perfect position near the penalty spot to deflect it over the line for the 3-0 halftime lead.
The hits kept coming after the break, after Francesco Di Tacchio was judged to have pulled down Venezia’s Petko Hristov on a corner leading to a spot kick for the visitors. However, Joel Pohjanpalo saw his kick to the lower left corner barely saved by Antony Iannarilli to keep the score at 3-0.
Busio entered the fray in the 59th minute for Andersen, although had little to do but help protect the three-goal lead.
Denis Cheryshev then rubbed salt into Ternana’s wounds in the 72nd minute, collecting Riccardo Ciervo’s pass in the middle of the area, and taking his time to settle the ball and then thread his shot between the keeper and several defenders to the lower right corner.
Ternana did net a consolation goal with 11 minutes left, when unmarked Gabriele Capanni easily put away his shot from the upper right corner of the six-yard box, however it did nothing to put the damper on a fine performance by the visitors.
The victory brings Venezia to 14th place, now five points ahead of the relegation playoff places with four games left to play. Remarkably, the tightly-packed Serie B standings this season see the team barely closer to the final promotion playoff spot than to the drop zone, giving them the narrowest of paths to a shot at returning to the top flight.
They begin their final four-game run on Monday, May 1 when tenth-place Modena pay a visit, then visit 15th-place Cosenza five days later.
Notes
Sergiño Dest continued to be a forgotten man for AC Milan following his return from a relatively successful USMNT game against Mexico, once again being left out of the roster for their 2-0 win over Lecce on Sunday.
